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FIFTY=5IX PAGES.
THE
RMFW
fflJJIC TRADE
VOL. XLI. No. 14.
Published Every Saturday by Edward Lyman Bill at I Madison Ave., New York, Oct. 7,1905.
OPERA PLANS NOW COMPLETE.
Season to Open With Goldmark's "The Queen
of Sheba"—Not Seen Here Since Anton
Seidl's Day—Much Expected from Mile.
Morena, a Rumanian Singer.
Mr. Conried has outlined his plans for the com-
ing season of opera at the Metropolitan. The
season of seventeen weeks will begin on Mon-
day, Nov. 20, with a revival of Goldmark's Bib-
lical opera, "The Queen of Sheba." It has not
been heard here since the days of Anton Seidl
and the German regime at the Metropolitan.
The principal roles will be sung by MM. Knote
and Van Rooy and Mmes. Nordica, Alten and
Fremstad or Walker. These two singers will
alternate in the title role.
The opera admits of lavish spectacle and new
scenery has already been painted. Mr. Conried
has ordered in Vienna 1,254 costumes for this
opera alone.
The other revivals, to follow in this order,
are: "Haensel und Gretel," with Mmes. Alten
and Abarbanell in the title roles and Louise
Homer as the witch; "La Favorita," with MM.
Caruso and Plancon and Edyth Walker; "La Som-
nambula," with MM. Caruso and Plancon and
Mme. Sembrich; "Marta" (in Italian), with MM.
Caruso and Plancon and Mmes. Sembrich and
Walker; "Der Fliegende Hollaender," with MM.
Knote and Van Rooy and Berta Morena; Puc-
cini's "Manon Lescaut" with M. Caruso and
Mme. Sembrich in the title roles, and Mozart's
"Don Giovanni," which will have a great cast
comprising MM. Caruso, Scotti and Journet and
Mmes. Sembrich, Nordica and Morena; "II Trov-
atore" (in Italian), with Heinrich Knote in the
title role, and Johann Strauss's "The Gipsy
Baron," which will engage the services of all the
leading singers in the company.
For all of these operas Mr. Conried has had
costumes designed by Prof. Leffler, of Vienna.
Mr. Conried will personally produce "The Queen
of Sheba," "Haensel und Gretel" and "The Gipsy
Baron." He will also prepare the lyric of the
Nibelungen Ring, to be given on four afternoons
of Christmas week.
"Next year," Mr. Conried said, "I am going to
give 'Rienzi,' in order that the Metropolitan may
hear a complete lyric of Wagner's operas. This
year all the Wagner operas in addition to the
regular French and Italian operas will be sung.
Signor Caruso is to sing 'Faust' and 'Don Jose'
in French, and he with M. Dippel will be adequate
for all the French works. I have engaged for
next year M. Rousselliere, a noted Paris tenor.
"Mme. Ternina told me two years ago there
was only one woman in Germany who sang the
Wagner rSles in a way that would please the
American public. This was Berta Morena, a
young Rumanian, at the Royal Opera in Mun-
ich. For two years I could not get her, because
she was under contract there. She signed her
new contract with the condition that she be al-
lowed a leave of absence to come here. So Mile.
Morena is to sing at the Metropolitan this win-
ter. She is very beautiful and I believe she will
be a great success."
Other new singers are Luisa Tettrazini, a col-
prature soprano who has a great reputation in
Italy, and Signor Belrescke, an Italian baritone
who will supplant Signor Giraldoni in the com-
pany.
"I tried to engage one of the noted German
conductors, but it was impossible. They make
fortunes in Europe and could not do the amount
of work necessary here. In seventeen weeks we
produce thirty-two operas. A German conductor
would like to have under his charge only two
operas a week, with five rehearsals for each of
them. That is out of the question here. I of-
fered Weingartner and Schuch $25,000 and Hans
Richter $50,000 for the season. But not one of
them would think of accepting it. Weingartner
is coming here for much less, but he is only to
conduct concerts. It is impossible for one of
these celebrities to adapt himself to the state
of affairs at the Metropolitan."
Mr. Conried will have MM. Vigna, Hertz and
Franko again as his staff of conductors. The
stage manager for the French and Italian operas
will be Eugene Dufriche. Carl Goldberger, form-
erly of Breslau and Berlin, will have charge of
most of the Wagner operas.
The New York season will be followed by a
four weeks tour on the road. There will be four-
teen performances in Philadelphia beginning on
Dec. 5. "Parsifal" will be sung twice during the
New York season.
The subscription to the opera is larger than
it ever has been in the past. The new electrical
apparatus installed last summer has cost $46,-
000, but it puts most of the stage apparatus with-
in the control of one person. In the future all
the drops will be operated by electricity.
The principal singers of the company will
again be MM. Caruso, Kraus, Dippel, Burg-
staller, Scotti, Plancon, Journet, Goritz and Van
Rooy, and Mmes. Sembrich, Eames, Nordica,
Fremstad, Walker, Homer and Alten.
CARL ON FAR EASTERN MUSIC.
Returns from Trip With Taft Party and Has
Much of Interest to Convey—Discovers Old
Organ Embodying Modern Ideas.
Wm. C. Carl, organist of the First Presbyterian
Church, New York, has just returned from his
extended visit to the Far East, where in addi-
tion to studying the music of old and modern
Japan, he had some very agreeable experiences in
regard to the hospitality of the people of the
Philippines, as he was a member of the govern-
ment party headed by Secretary Taft. After
describing in a most interesting way the magnifi-
cent reception accorded Mr. Taft everywhere, he
spoke enthusiastically of the musical predilec-
tions of the people of the Philippines, and the
music by the native band of sixty pieces, which
he heard on the Lunetta, the fashionable prom-
enade at Manila. Among the numbers played
was the march of the Grail Knights from "Parsi-
fal," which was capitally rendered, the conductor
being an American negro named Loving. Mr.
Carl added:
"At the Governor-General's reception to Mr.
Taft a native orchestra played the ballet music
from a Filipino opera, which was a very credit-
able piece of work. I heard afterwards many of
the native bands, and in each instance it was
SINGLE COPIES. 10 CENTS
$2.00 PER YEAR.
surprising how quickly they had learned the mod-
ern ways of doing things musically."
Speaking of his musical researches in Japan
Mr. Carl said: "At Nikko, the City of Temples, I
discovered in the Temple Iegasu a bamboo organ
over seven hundred years old. It is very curious
in construction, in that the pipes are made en-
tirely of bamboo and in appearance resemble to
a remarkable extent the modern organs of Europe
and America. The organ is called a 'sho' and
has seven notes, which can be played in harmony
or singly. Unlike the organs of Europe, this ona
is played as a wind instrument with a mouth-
piece. The scale consists of five notes, but no
one would tell me what they were. In Tokio I
asked an organ manufacturer, who learned his
trade in Brooklyn, and who turns out excellent
modern instruments, what they were, and he re-
plied: 'I don't care nothing to know about the
scale. We care nothing for the past. The future
in all things is what we are looking after just
now.'
"The native music varies in many ways. In
the temples it is descriptive of the service; the
music of the geishas is depicted in pantomime by
the geishas, while in the theatres it plays as im-
portant a part as the play itself. The actor recites
one line, the next is in music, the actor interpret-
ing its meaning in pantomime. In tragic situa-
tions it is very uncanny. The flute plays an im-
portant, characteristic phrase to the accompani-
ment of drums. The actor recites a stanza, which
is rendered most dramatic by a sharp staccato
tap of the drum like a pistol shot. This is done
to arrest attention, by punctuating each stanza.
The Japanese in their time have had a poet who
to them is a Shakespeare, and his works are the
most prominent of the native productions. The
European play is coming into vogue, however,
and this summer there was rendered in Tokio
'Othello,' 'Hamlet' and 'Monte Cristo,' a perform-
ance of the latter being one that I witnessed."
MUSIC AT BROOKLYN INSTITUTE.
The Brooklyn Institute will be as active as
ever in promoting good music this season across
the East River. Among the announcements are a
song and violin recital in October by Bispham and
Marie Nichols, five chamber concerts by the Knel-
sel Quartette, five concerts by the Boston Sym-
phony Orchestra, lecture recitals on the orchestral
programmes, recitals by Marie Hall, Kubelik, Mar-
teau, Gerardy, Ben Davies, Maud Powell, concerts
by Mme. Eames and Mme. Gadski, "The Messiah"
at Christmas, concert by the Adamowski Trio, two
concerts by the New York Symphony Orchestra,
one under Mr. Weingartner, the other under Mr.
Damrosch; concerts by the Brooklyn Saenger-
bund and the Brooklyn Arion, a series of English
opera performances by Col. Savage's company,
and a large number of other song recitals, lec-
tures and courses of instruction in music.
VINCENT MAY LECTURE.
It is likely that M. Vincent d'Indy, the dis-
tinguished French composer and conductor, who
has been invited to conduct a series of the Boston
Symphony concerts in December, will deliver
some lectures while he is in America. M. d'Indy
is an authority on the aesthetics of music